only find two that would allow the ships to float at low water, and that by some care in placing and keeping them there.  Having fixed a flag on each berg, the usual signal for the ships taking their stations, I rowed on board the Fury, and found four pumps constantly going to keep the ship free, and Captain Hoppner, his officers and men, almost exhausted with the incessant labour of the last eight-and-forty hours.  The instant the ships were made fast, Captain Hoppner and myself set out in a boat to survey the shore still farther south, there being a narrow lane of water about a mile in that direction; for it had now become too evident that the Fury could proceed no farther without repairs, and that the nature of those repairs would in all probability involve the disagreeable, I may say the ruinous, necessity of heaving the ship down.  After rowing about three quarters of a mile, we considered ourselves fortunate in arriving at a bolder part of the beach, where three grounded masses of ice, having from three to four fathoms water at low tide within them, were so disposed as to afford, with the assistance of art, something like shelter.  Returning to the ships, we were setting the sails in order to run to the appointed place, when the ice closed in and prevented our moving, and in a short time there was once more no open water to be seen.  We were therefore under the necessity of remaining in our present berths, where the smallest external pressure must inevitably force us ashore, neither ship having more than two feet of water to spare.  One watch of the Hecla’s crew were sent round to assist at the Fury’s pumps, which required one third of her ship’s company to be constantly employed at them.

The more leisure we obtained to consider the state of the Fury, the more apparent became the absolute, however unfortunate, necessity of heaving her down.  Four pumps were required to be at work without intermission to keep her free, and this in perfectly smooth water, showing that she was, in fact, so materially injured as to be very far from seaworthy.  One third of her working men were constantly employed, as before remarked, in this laborious operation, and some of their hands had become so sore from the constant friction of the ropes, that they could hardly handle them any longer without the use of mittens, assisted by the unlaying of the ropes to make them soft.  As, therefore, not a moment could be lost, we took advantage of a small lane of water, deep enough for boats, which kept open within the grounded masses along the shore, to convey to the Hecla some of the Fury’s dry provisions, and to land a quantity of heavy iron work, and other stores not perishable; for the moment this measure was determined on, I was anxious, almost at any risk, to commence the lightening of the ship as far as our present insecurity and our distance from the shore would permit.